The Increasing Need for Staffing Agencies
If you're in operation and dealing with a rapidly growing list of interested job seekers, or if you're a prospect looking for a job, you cannot underestimate the significance of coping with staffing agencies. Both employers and employees can benefit from the services an agency can provide, and in this time of higher unemployment and fewer job openings you will need every edge you can obtain. In the past 3 years, the United States went from having a national unemployment rate of roughly seven percent to 1 that's now hovering near ten percent. The "experts" say that may eventually come down, but you need to deal with the realities of today, not the hopeful projections for tomorrow. There's hardly any hard evidence yet that the economy will probably continue to improve.
The job market in the United States along with other developed nations has evolved in recent years because the world has shrunk. Outsourcing manufacturing and production work is not a strictly American practice. European nations are doing it, and so are most of the stronger economic powers in the centre East. Great Britain has gone from the major manufacturing hub to a nation of white collar management jobs and low income, unskilled labor positions. Meanwhile, here at home, job prospects for recent college graduates are few in number. That is why the services of a staffing agency have become increasingly important. If you don't have someone doing the footwork for you, your chances of landing a good-paying job in any country are almost non-existent.
Why Should My Company Hire You?
If you think about it, that hour-long first interview boils down to one simple question. Why exactly should any prospective employer hire you? For that matter, why would anyone even grant you an interview? You can find a huge selection of candidates for that position you're trying to get. Why should you be any different from any of the others? Your job as the person seeking to secure a position would be to make yourself look as interesting as possible as soon as you apply. This is not like the past when every applicant will be interviewed. There is a screening process now. Have you any idea ways to get through it? A staffing agency does.
Evaluating Your Needs as an Employer
Let's consider the other side of the employment coin. Imagine you're the one with the job to provide. If you're owning a company that is able to offer new jobs for the first time in a while, you should evaluate your needs before you begin posting to classified sites and running help wanted ads in the newspapers. It's not like you have to hire the first available "warm body with a pulse" as if you did in the 90's. You can find a huge selection of unemployed warm bodies that are qualified for the work you're offering and dozens more who are overqualified but will need it just to get back to work. How do you bring that number right down to a manageable pool? Additional resources staffing agency can help you.
Understanding the Job Market and Choosing Your Profession
There are jobs which have been consistently secure for a long time which are slowly disappearing today. Remember those commercials for the Maytag repairman who had to take side work because there was nothing to accomplish? His job didn't disappear because the appliances were so reliable they didn't need fixing. Maytag got absorbed by Whirlpool and Whirlpool outsourced all their manufacturing to Southeast Asia. It's now much cheaper to get a new washer or dryer than pay a repairman to fix the old one. If your training and job experience is in the appliance field, you must find another line of work. Understand what's available before looking for a job that's not there.
Staffing agencies generally have training programs, plus they definitely have an improved grasp of what professions come in demand and which to remain away from. "Automotive jobs are considered a dead end at this time, but health care is booming." That's a general statement you'll hear from those that don't possess a clue what's really going on. The UAW factory jobs of yesteryear may never come back, but there are openings for those been trained in alternative energy. Learn to build electric cars and you will manage to land an excellent job. On the other hand, health care might be booming, but maybe there is funding to pay everyone's salary? You may want to think about entering that field at this time, unless you wish to be a primary care doctor. We are in need of plenty of those.
Do you really need to be unemployed?
Apply to any staffing agency in the country and you'll find that they have a large number of jobs available. You can leave and claim you are not qualified for any of them or you can seek out some training and get into a different line of work. The old job you'd, no matter how long you had it, might not be coming back. Occasionally, entire industries are disappearing. If you're a chemist who's worked in plastics for a decade, it's time to go back to school for another thing. If you're a factory worker who's been laid off for two years, it's time to re-train and get into shipping and receiving or clerical work. Even if it pays less, at the very least you'll be back to work. Business process outsourcing won't last forever, you know.
As the world changes and old opportunities disappear, new ones are showing up every day. A good staffing agency can put you on the right track to a fresh career. If you're not sure what field you intend to work in, do some temping. More companies are leaning in that direction anyway because the battle over mandatory health care rages on. Temps don't get benefits, but they do buying a paycheck. A surprisingly high percentage of the folks that are out of work now are unemployed by choice. There are jobs available, however they prefer to get selective and wait for something else to come along. If you're among those folks, you may have noticed that "another thing" isn't coming. Work with what's out there. You might actually find a new job you like up to the old one.